International COSMIC Consortium Named to the Global Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative

COSMIC the UNSW Sydney-based Consortium Brings Dementia Data from Eight Countries to new International Program Aimed at Defeating Alzheimer’s Disease

We are excited to be a founding partner of DAC’s Global Cohort Development. Our Cohorts have begun collaborating with DAC with the goal of an inclusive global effort to defeat of Alzheimer's”

— Professor Perminder Sachdev, PI of COSMIC and Co-Director of CHeBA

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, January 27, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) announced the Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC) has agreed to be part of the DAC Global Cohort Development program, a groundbreaking data platform to accelerate the discovery, assessment, and delivery of precision interventions for Alzheimer’s Disease.

The DAC Global Cohort Development (GCD) platform will help drive scientific discovery by providing researchers access to an

extensive, truly international platform populated with brain related health data from broad and diverse populations. It will support AI and machine learning with organized and aggregated data collected from digital devices through research labs, hospitals and even people’s own smartphones. This data resource will help determine the causes, predispositions, and habits for people who develop Alzheimer’s Disease. It may also inform drug discovery and clinical care at a more rapid pace.

COSMIC is an international consortium combining data from population-based longitudinal cohort studies to identify common risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline, led by UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA).

“We are excited to be a major founding partner of this collaboration and contribute to DAC’s Global Cohort Development in its inaugural year,” said Professor Perminder Sachdev, PI of COSMIC and Co-Director of CHeBA. “We are a group of 44 cohorts representing 33 countries and are pleased that eight have already started their collaboration with DAC. We look forward to adding more of our cohorts in 2022 and to be part of DAC’s strategic plan of expanding this concept worldwide.”

“Collaboration and inclusion are essential elements for defeating Alzheimer’s Disease,” said Dr. Rhoda Au, Director of the Global Cohort Development at DAC. “Working in silos with limited representation of participants from across the world is not producing results, either comprehensively enough or fast enough. Past studies have skewed results because of the exclusion of low- and middle- income resourced areas and/or countries. We believe the important work and scientific data from COSMIC will further advance our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Participation
The Global Cohort Development combines the best of science – collaboration, creative thinking, and discovery. Other interested researchers with cohorts that share these objectives are encouraged to apply. Because of the synergistic nature of this work, cohorts with limited resources are put on similar footing with the large research organizations. Supporters are finding this program a cost-effective way to influence the big, new ideas necessary to stem the tide of AD.

The initial COSMIC cohorts participating in the DAC Global Cohort Development program:

• Bambui Cohort Study of Aging, Brazil
• LRGS TUA: Neuroprotective Model for Healthy Longevity among Malaysian Older Adults, Malaysia
• Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research (MELOR), Malaysia
• Marikina Memory and Aging Project (MMAP), Philippines
• Prevent Elder Abuse and negleCt initiativE (PEACE), Malaysia
• Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies (SLAS I & II), Singapore
• Transforming Cognitive Frailty into Later-Life Self-Sufficiency (AGELESS), Malaysia

About the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative
Initiated in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2020, The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative is a public-private partnership committed to aligning stakeholders with a new vision for our collective global response against the challenges Alzheimer’s presents to patients, caregivers, and healthcare infrastructures. Led by The World Economic Forum (WEF) and The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi) and fueled by a mission of service to the 150 million families and half a billion people inevitably impacted by this disease by 2050, DAC is a collaborative for the benefit of all people, in all places.